1. The Power of Free Agency
2. Work Top 10: How to Plan Your Day3. Quotes of the Week
4. Did You Know?
5. Dream Job Coaching Report

Feature ArticlePower of Free Agency

How can you become a free agent in today's workplace? A free agent has power, great freedom and is in charge of his/her career. Many people think of free agency as existing only in the sports world, but it's becoming one of the strongest ways to protect yourself against the corporate concept of the 90's, that PEOPLE ARE EXPENDABLE.

With more mergers and acquisitions in the 90's than the 80's, companies can't promise you'll be a lifelong employee anymore. If the company has to cut, they will cut people, no matter how great you are. Companies are saying, "We do not have a commitment to keep people employed. We only have a commitment to keep them employable." So yes, you are expendable in the company where you work!

However, where you want to work and what you want to do are fully in your control. You can take the power back from the company controlling you and your life so you are in control over what you most want. You can become a free agent inside your current organization, or outside of it, by creating the job youultimately want.

How do you stay employable and become a free agent within the company you work? The best way is to know the skills, values, abilities, talents, gifts, passions, interests and tool sets that make you unique and powerful and leverage them in your current work situation. You'll be recognized for these skill sets and rewarded financially. Thus, you'll stay employed by the company.

A similar process occurs when understanding how to create the job you want? Begin by getting to know who you truly are. The best way is the same as above (interests, skills, passions, etc.). You begin to touch the freedom of free agency once you know what you want. You have the power. You have the control. When you know what you want, you'll attract people who do the work that you most want to do. Your dream job will become a reality.

Take time this week and write on a piece of paper what your skills, values, abilities, talents, gifts, passions, interests and tool sets are. As you write down your list, become clear on how you are utilizing these assets in your current work situation. If they aren't being utilized at your work, make changes so that the real you will become a part of your job. Don't waste your talents just because your environment hasn't become aware of them. Make your potential or current employer aware and be proactive.

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http://www.dreamjobcoaching.com/coaching-overview.html

Plan your work for today and every day and then follow your plan. Set aside 10-15 minutes for planning at the start of the day because it will help you work more efficiently. You'll find that you actually save more than an hour a day.

First Hour For Most Important Tasks
Make sure the first hour of your day is productive because it sets a pattern for your entire day. Always focus on the most important items first by asking yourself what you need to get done today in order to feel complete. By doing the important things first, you are focusing more on what is most important and less on how fast you are going. By spending 20% of your day, focusing on the most important tasks, you will accomplish 80% of your results (Pareto 80/20 Principle).

Carve Out Time For Non-Urgent Activities
Schedule time during your day where you work on only non-urgent activities (i.e., phone, e-mail, paying bills). As-you-go Task System As activities or information come into your day, complete them on an as-you-go basis, instead of putting them on your to-do list to complete at a later time.

Treat Each Day As Unique
As you schedule each day, take into consideration the most appropriate activity for that day. Fridays might be your creative, planning days, while Mondays can be for organizing.

Prioritize Your Most Important Activities
Write down the most important tasks you have to do and number them in order of importance. You can ask yourself two questions in order to help you find the most important task, 1- If I could only do one item today, which would it be? 2- Is doing this activity the best use of my time, knowledge, creativity, and experience? The next day when you arrive at work, work on the most important activity until it's finished. After completing this task recheck your priorities and begin with the next most important activity. This will lead to a greater sense of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Quotes of the Week

When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.
~ Patanjali (1st-3rd Century B.C.)

He who every morning plans the transactions of the day and follows out that plan, carries a thread that will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.
~ Victor Hugo

Did You Know?

A young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted.

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the of his graduation, his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box.

Curious, and somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible, with the young man's name embossed in gold. Angry, he rose his voice to his father and said "With all your money you give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the house.

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day.

Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things. When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago.

With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. His father had carefully underlined a verse, Matt.7:11. "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" As he read those words, a set of car keys dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words PAID IN FULL.

How many times do we miss our blessings because they are not packaged as we expected? Thank you, Michelle Conwisar for emailing me this wonderful story.

Dream Job Coaching Report

Additional Services Joel has added NEW services to his practice. These services have been so helpful in getting great results for his clients that he wants to inform you of what can be possible by working with Dream Job Coaching. He can be hired for individual coaching in the following areas:

Career Transition Work
All of Joel's clients utilize his Dream Job Workbook, which provides a life-transforming system for achieving all that your heart desires for your chosen work. The forty modules of exercises within this workbook provide tools for growth and transformation.

Holistic Life Vision Quest
During these quests Joel looks at all aspects of your life. Some non-work domains of life we touch on are health, money, family, friends, intimate partner, pleasure and fun, self and spirituality. When you improve upon one aspect of your life, then other aspects will be positively affected and will be enhanced.

Future-Self Visualization
You will be guided through a closed-eye visualization exercise. From the visualization exercise you will become introduced to your future self. After your introduction you will write out your vision of your future self twenty years from now.

Monthly Strategy Sessions
You will stay focused at a high level in order to formulate a program to reach your dreams.

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Coaching Services

Joel Garfinkle is available for coaching. Send him an email at joel@dreamjobcoach.com or call (510) 339-3201.

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